Golf Golf's Longest Day: U.S. Open qualifying begins, from sunup to sundown, and coast to coast
Golf's longest day begins at dawn on Monday from Boynton Beach to the Pacific Northwest, and from Georgia to Canada.
The United States Golf Association is conducting 10 36-hole sectional qualifiers, with 645 players battling to fill the last 45 spots in the Open June 15-18 at the Los Angeles Country Club. The Florida sectional will be at the Pine Tree Golf Club in Boynton Beach and the Georgia sectional is the Hawks Ridge Golf Club in Ball Ground.
Three sectionals have already been held, in Dallas, England and Japan. Among the qualifiers were Sergio Garcia (Dallas), Ryo Ishikawa (Japan) and Ross Fisher (England).
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Golf Channel will air day-long coverage of the sectionals from 7-9 a.m., noon-2 p.m. and 6-p.m.-midnight. Fans also can follow on social media @usopengolf.
Here's a rundown of the sectionals and a live scoring link to each one.
Pine Tree Golf Club, Boynton Beach (51 players, three spots)
Veterans: LIV Golf members Carlos Ortiz and Matthew Wolff. Wolff was the runner-up in the 2020 U.S. Open to Bryson DeChambeau at Winged Foot.
Go Gators: NCAA individual champion Fred Biondi of Tampa is in the field, fresh off UF's national championship last week.
Area players: Past Times-Union high school players of the year Julian Suri (Bartram Trail) and Brandon Mancheno (Mandarin), plus former JU player Colin Monagle (Bishop Kenny) and current UNF player Lance Yates.
Bloodlines: Cameron Kuchar, the 15-year-old son of 2012 Players champion Matt Kuchar; and Cristian DiMarco, the son of former Gator player and three-time Tour winner Chris DiMarco. DiMarco a past All-AAC player at South Florida, plays left-handed and putts right-handed.
Hawks Ridge Golf Club, Ball Ground, Ga. (43 players for three spots)
Veterans: 2011 FedEx Cup champion Bill Haas, two-time PGA Tour winner Ted Potter Jr., and former Georgia Tech player Roberto Castro, who once shared the 18-hole scoring record for The Players Championship.
Area players: Patton Kizzire of St. Simons Island, Ga., a two-time PGA Tour winner.
Sarge in the field: Among the amateur players is Vanderbilt rising junior Gordon Sargent, the SEC player of the year and the 2022 NCAA individual champion. He also won The Hayt in February by a record score and victory margin.
Brookside Golf & Country Club, The Lakes Golf & Country Club, Columbus, Ohio (103 players for 11 spots)
Veterans: The largest qualifier, the day after The Memorial final round, includes major champions Lucas Glover, Stewart Cink and Geoff Ogilvy, and past multiple PGA Tour winners Luke Donald, Kevin Kisner, and Emiliano Grillo.
Area players: Two-time major champion and U.S. Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson, three-time ASUN player of the year Nick Gabrelcik of UNF, past UNF player Michael Mattiace, Tyson Alexander, Davis Thompson, Lanto Griffin, Sam Ryder and David Lingmerth. Griffin tied for medalist in the Columbus secontional last year with Chan Kim.
Cink went low: Cink set the all-time U.S. Open sectional scoring record in 2003 at Brookside and The Lakes with rounds of 62-61--123.
Bloodlines: Eric Cole's mother Laura Baugh played in 14 U.S. Women's Opens. She is a teacher at Palencia.
Lambton Golf & Country Club, Toronto (27 players for three spots)
Veterans: It could be the Harry and Harry Show -- Harry Hall of England, who made a run at last week's Schwab Challenge and Harry Higgs, who tied for fourth in the PGA and for 14th in the Masters in 2022. Also playing are Ryan Armour, Maverick McNealy, and Richy Werenski.
Area players: Jonas Blixt and Carl Yuan of Ponte Vedra Beach. Blixt was the medalist last year at a sectional in Ontario.
Block party: Michael Block, the low club pro at the PGA Championship with a tie for 15th, has played in two U.S. Opens, 2007 and 2018. His son is attempting to qualify in Los Angeles.
PGA Tour U valedictorian: Ludvig Aberg of Sweden earned his PGA Tour card by finishing atop the PGA Tour University rankings for college seniors. He also is the Ben Hogan Award winner as the nation's top college golfer for the second year in a row and was the Big 12 and Norman NCAA regional champion.
Hillcrest Country Club, Los Angeles (89 players for five spots)
Veterans: Brendan Steele, who played college golf at nearby UC-Riverside, has won three times on the PGA Tour and his current stop on LIV Golf is his fifth professional tour. He is going for his sixth U.S. Open. Also playing are another LIV Golf member, Matt Jones, and Charley Hoffman
Rooting for the boss: Tom Gardner has played on the PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour in the past but his current job is director of golf at the Los Angeles Country Club, the site of this year's Open.
Youth is served: Barclay Brown of England, led Stanford to the Pac-12 title this season. ... Adriel Abaoag, 16, of Burbank, Calif., is a junior at John Burroughs High School ... Dylan Block, 18, of Mission Viejo, is the son of Michael Block. ... Ian Gilligan, 20, of Reno, Nev., overcame a battle with anaplastic large-cell lymphoma that included seven rounds of chemotherapy at age 15. He was the Big West Conference player of the year at Long Beach State and won the conference individual title. ... Jaden Soong, 13, of Burbank, is a seventh grader at Thomas Starr King Middle School. ... Preston Summerhays, 20, of Scottsdale, Ariz., first-team All-Pac-12 at Arizona State and the 2019 U.S. Junior champion. He is the son of former PGA Tour player Boyd, the nephew of PGA Tour player Daniel and the great-nephew of Bruce, who won three PGA Tour Champions events. His younger sister, Grace, qualified for the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach on May 30.
Woodmont Country Club, Rockville, Md. (60 players for four spots)
Veterans: LIV Golf members Marc Leishman and Sebastian Munoz, plus Joseph Bramlett.
Analyze this: Former Wake Forest player Evan Beck, 32, is an analyst for an investment group. In 2022, he won the Eastern Amateur and Virginia State Golf Association Mid-Amateur, while also reaching the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball semifinals and the Round of 32 at the U.S. Mid-Amateur. At the other end of the age spectrum is Wake Forest junior Michael Brennan, a three-time All-ACC player and the first Demon Deacon to win the ACC individual title since Webb Simpson in 2008.
Canoe Brook Country Club, Summit, N.J. (67 players for four spots)
Veterans: Three-time PGA Tour winner Jim Herman has won on three pro tours.
Area players: Former JU player Raul Pereda has already had an eventful spring. He contended in the PGA Tour's Mexico Open in his home country and recorded the longest hole-out on the Tour so far this season, and tied Michael Mattiace for second in a local qualifier.
Amateur veterans: This sectional is loaded with career amateurs or pros who have regained their amateur status, led by past U.S. Mid-Amateur champions Stewart Hagestad and Michael Parziale, a former firefighter who is celebrating his birthday on Monday. Also playing are Raymond Floyd Jr., the son of World Golf Hall of Fame member Raymond Floyd, Cody Paladino, the runner-up in the 2007 U.S. Amateur Public Links and Dan Walters, a former Rollins College player and winner of the 2006 Sunshine State Conference title.
Old Chatham Golf Club, Durham, N.C. (76 players for five spots)
Veterans: Past PGA Tour players in the field include North Carolina native Harold Varner III, who won his first LIV Golf title two weeks ago, Chesson Hadley, Spencer Levin, Bo Van Pelt and Scott Gutschewski.
Area players: Doc Redman of Ponte Vedra Beach, Jared Wolfe of Nocatee, Cody Blick of Jacksonville, Sam Saunders of Atlantic Beach and Paul Peterson and Parker Gillam of St. Simons Island, Ga.
Springfield (Ohio) Country Club (75 players for five spots)
Veterans; Beau Hossler, Nick Hardy, Ryan Brehm, Scott Piercy, Taylor Pendrith, Troy Merritt, Robert Garrigus, Brian Stuard.
Mack Attack: Also trying to qualify will be mini-tour and Advocates Professional Golf Association legend Willie Mack III. The former Bethune-Cookman player won three APGA events in 2022, has more than 70 mini-tour victories and has won the last two APGA Billy Horschel Invitationals.
Tacoma Country & Golf Club, Lakewood, Wash. (54 players for two spots)
Amateur hour: There are 27 amateurs in the field, nearly half the total, and this is the only sectional without a PGA Tour winner in the field. The professional with the best street cred is Korn Ferry Tour player Joe Highsmith, who finished fourth in Panama this season.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Major champions, junior golfers united by one goal: Make the U.S. Open
